Gravel on the Ground: Taking Flight
by 1917farmgirl
Summary: The universe is full of stories. As the beads of a necklace they follow one another, plodding throughout the eternities in an orderly line. Stories weave in and out of time, like the Fates spinning the universe away, measured and exact, sometimes repeating, sometimes dying, sometimes so quiet you don't even know they are there. Until, one day, they collide... (Team Fic.)
1. Prologue

**Gravel on the Ground: Taking Flight**

**Author's Note:** This is a rather unique story in concept, and I've struggled with exactly how to explain it so it makes sense to readers. I finally begged help off of the amazing Smuffly, who very succinctly cut through the mess to the heart of the matter. So, thanks to her, here's what you need to know to read this story:

That this story has a background to it currently being written and posted on the Harry Potter section of this site. Two stories being written in tandem. So, in essence, it's a crossover, but more in concept and events than in characters, with the exception of a couple of original characters who bridge both worlds.

That you can choose to read it in one of three ways. Take it as a piece in its own right, because it can function as a standalone CSI NY story. Follow the background story at the same time (or first, if you like things to be chronological.) Or read the background stories later on. All the stories can be found on my author's page, and all bear the series title of "Gravel on the Ground."

For those of you that are detail oriented and versed in your Harry Potter universe, you should know I have altered two things. First, I have pushed the dates for the entire Harry Potter universe forward five years in order to better mesh with the CSI NY timeline. This has been done in all the novels, so things are consistent. And secondly, I consider all the extra material beyond what was published in the novels to be suggestions rather than canon.

**Special thanks to **Smuffly for being the heart behind this story and loving it as much as I do. For hours of endless plot help, encouragement, reading and re-reading, and editing. For making me keep writing it, and convincing me to post it. Without her, this story wouldn't exist, so, Smuffly, this story is for you.

**Disclaimer: ** Any recognizable characters, plots or settings belong to either the creators of CSI NY or J.K. Rowling. Only the original characters and the story idea belong to me. I make no profit from this.

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"_And suddenly you know: It's time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings." _

_- _Meister Eckhart

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**Prologue**

Mac Taylor looked up as the young lab tech knocked on his office door. Either they were getting younger or he was getting older because she hardly appeared ready to be out of school. Although, after closer inspection, there was something about this particular one's eyes that seemed weary and ancient. Mac was a quick study of people; it was one of the reasons he was good at his job. He knew what that look meant. This girl had seen more than someone her age should. He fought the urge to sigh. Too many of his people had that look in their eyes.

"Come in," he said, gesturing for the young woman to enter the glass room.

She walked in with a small, shy smile and held a folder out to him. He took it and opened it, quickly scanning the contents.

"The results of the chemical tests from the processing plant?" he said with mild surprise. He hadn't expected those until at least tomorrow.

The girl nodded.

"What's your name?" he asked, impressed. He'd seen her around, of course. With her bright red hair she was hard to miss, but even he couldn't keep all the lab techs' names stored in his head, especially the ones who usually worked the shifts when he wasn't there. And he hated to admit it, but he hadn't kept quite as close of tabs on the entry level lab employees as he usually did. Between the explosion two months ago that had nearly taken Don from them and left the team reeling, and his new…whatever it was called with Peyton, he'd let a few things slide.

Time to start making up for that.

The girl blushed slightly at his question and glanced down behind her glasses. Then she pulled the ID card off her coat and held it out to him.

Curious, he took it. "Sadie Weasley," he read out loud. The name tugged at the corners of his recent memory.

She nodded, glancing longingly at the door.

He handed the badge back and gave the tech a pointed look, asking for an explanation for the unusual introduction.

A resigned expression slipped over her features as she took the card back. With growing curiosity, Mac watched her reached into the pocket of the lab coat she was wearing and pull out a small spiral notebook and stubby pencil. She flipped it to the first and turned a well-worn, pre-written message toward him.

_I can hear but I can't speak._

Ah. That answered many questions. He felt a flash of guilt for the discomfort he was obviously causing her, and the fact that this was a detail he _really_ should have already been aware of.

"Did you do the tests?" he asked her, determined to treat her like anyone else and try to ease the self-consciousness she felt about her boss finding out she was different.

She nodded again.

"How did you get them done so fast?"

This time she flipped to a clean page in the notebook and started scribbling with the pencil for a minute before she handed it over for him to read.

_I work on the janitor crew, too. Finished cleaning early this morning but still had 2 hours left. Needed something to do._

Mac eyed her again, pondering. A young lab tech, right out of college, who picked up extra shifts cleaning toilets instead of hitting the bars and clubs with her peers? She was either strapped for cash, or not fitting in well. He glanced at the notebook again before returning it. _It can be hard to be different_, he thought sadly.

"Well, thank you," he said, meaning it. "You just put us ahead on this case."

She blushed a little and smiled shyly, then turned to leave, but Mac suddenly remembered why her name was familiar.

"You were on the list to take the Level Two test but you took your name off," he said, stopping her from leaving. She turned back to him hesitantly. "Why?" he asked. The results he'd skimmed just now were thorough and neat. She obviously had the knowledge and skills, not to mention the work ethic.

She shrugged, but Mac held her gaze, not satisfied. He had little tolerance for wasted talent and he wanted a better answer than that. Finally, her shoulders slumped and she pulled out the notebook again.

_I don't have the money for the test fee, _he read when she handed him the little book.

Mac softened as one of his guesses was confirmed. "Take the test," he said, smiling kindly as he handed the note back. "We'll worry about the fee later."

A look of astonishment filled her face.

_Really_, she wrote quickly.

"Really," he replied with another smile, nodding. He could see there was talent hiding in this young lab tech, and he'd never backed down from encouraging that when he found it, no matter how unorthodox it might seem. He'd built the best crime lab around by putting faith in a bunch of misfits that most others wouldn't have given a second glance.

Suddenly, there were small tears spilling out of the young woman's eyes and rolling down her cheeks. She wiped them away, embarrassed, and gave him a wobbly smile.

*Thank you, thank you,* she signed, notebook forgotten. Mac didn't know sign language, but the meaning of her motions was obvious.

"You're welcome," he replied.

Still fighting to control her emotions, the girl gave him another grateful look and then ducked out of his office. He smiled one last time to himself then picked up the report she'd brought him and started studying it in depth. The more he read, the more he knew he'd made the right decision. He would personally be watching for the Level Two test results this time around.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

With still moist eyes, Sadie Weasley stood in the hall, staring at the paper tacked to the bulletin board. People moved around her, hurrying to and fro, oblivious to the silent lab tech – just like they always were.

A strong sense of déjà vu filled her. Just yesterday she'd been here, her heart heavy as she raised her pencil and drew a line through her name on the Level Two exam list. There was a promotion open, to move up the ranks of the lab. Moving up in level meant moving up in pay: more money for food and rent…for Izzy. She desperately needed it. But to even be eligible to apply for the position, she had to take and pass the Level Two test – a test that came with a $130.00 fee attached to it. She'd tried everything she could think of to scrape the money together but it just wasn't possible. Extra shifts just ate into her already precious time with Izzy; too many of them and the little girl might as well live at Mrs. Oddsocks. And going without a meal or two was hardly an option when that was already her reality most of the time.

No, she'd come to the conclusion that she'd simply have to take her name off and wait until another opening came, however long that might take.

But now…

Full of stunned gratitude, she once again raised a trembling hand and erased the mark through her name.

_Help will always come to those who need it_, she heard the echo of a gentle voice repeat inside her head. Maybe that was true. Even when there wasn't magic…just good people.

She heard the way the other Entry Level lab techs spoke of the boss. Because she didn't talk and join in their conversations, they often forgot she was even there and could still hear them. Judging without knowing, they whispered behind the boss's back, pegging Detective Taylor as an arrogant, aloof, uncaring man who ran his lab with an iron fist. Sadie, however, wasn't so certain. Life had forced her to hone her observation skills, and the few times she'd watched the man, she sensed an entirely different vibe.

Today had proven her right. Detective Taylor, whatever other traits he might have, was a good man.

For a few seconds longer, she let her gaze linger on the list with her name restored to it. She ran her finger across it gently, then turned and headed back to the stack of files waiting for her to catalogue and label.

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"I know what you're doing."

Startled, Sadie whirled around abruptly as the unexpected voice addressed her. Bridget Martins, a fellow newbie, was standing by the wall in the shadows of the locker room, eyeing her coldly. She raised her eyebrows in question, knowing it would do no good to try and sign. None of the others she worked with had ever shown the slightest interest in learning to understand her. They were content to ignore her when they could and impatiently read her cryptic notes when they had to.

"Don't play innocent with me. I saw you sucking up to the boss man, turning in that report early and then using the poor, pitiful can't talk card with him to get bonus points. You're working the system with your wide-eyed vulnerability and I'm on to you. There are a bunch of us here that want that Level Two spot just as badly as you do, and we're not about to lose it to you because the law mandates this place hire a certain number of freaks a year to be politically correct. So you can just back off the brown-nosing."

Her speech delivered, Bridget marched out of the locker room leaving Sadie alone. For a brief moment, the rather wicked part of her mind that had been cultivated by the twins for four years considered all the many ways she could make the other girl eat her words, but it didn't last long. Her days of pranks and clever revenge were long behind her, left in the dust of a too short childhood.

With a silent sigh, Sadie sank onto a hard bench, replaying the hurtful words that had just been hurled at her. Her fingers gripped the smooth wood and a mirthless smile tugged at her lips. For just a moment she wondered if Draco Malfoy or Pansy Parkinson had any cousins in American they weren't aware of because her time in the lab often left her feeling very much like a lone Gryffindor in a room full of Slytherins.

This wasn't a harmless competition between Houses, though. This was her future at stake. And apparently, the Muggle world of career advancement was as down and dirty as the corners of Knockturn Alley.

She honestly didn't know what to do. Once again she felt the pang of how alone she was, how much she wished she had someone to turn to for advice.

Still, she'd chosen this life; she would learn to live it. And she really did want to succeed. She loved the thrill of watching a puzzle come together to tell a story, seeing the pieces fall into place one by one. She might not be inventing amazing things to make people laugh, or saving the world from ultimate evil, but she still felt like she was doing something good, something she could be proud of.

Detective Taylor had just handed her a precious gift; a way to take the test when she thought it wasn't going to be possible. He'd shown support for her, when he didn't even know her. She wasn't going to throw that away.

She'd take the test she decided, rising to her feet with new determination. But she wasn't stupid. She knew she couldn't survive working day in and day out with a bunch of people who had completely turned on her. So she'd take the test, but she'd be very, very careful not to draw the attention of Detective Taylor or any of the senior staff her way again. If she passed the test and earned the Level Two spot, she wanted there to be no question that she'd done it on her own merits and not out of charity.

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Adam sniffed the tuna sandwich he'd just pulled from the break room fridge cautiously. Through one reason or another, it had been there a whole week, but he hadn't had time to grab a lunch today and he was really hungry. It didn't smell like it would kill him and desperate times called for desperate measures…

He decided to risk it. An apple snagged from the bowl on the counter and a refill of his coffee mug completed the rather pitiful meal. Careful not to drop anything, he made his way to the far corner table where Danny sat.

Adam pulled the chair out and plopped down, but the cheerful greeting on the tip of his tongue never made it any farther as he studied his friend. Danny stared through the glass walls, his own food lying untouched on the table before him. He was so lost in thought Adam was pretty sure the other man wasn't even aware he'd joined him. Following Danny's gaze, it was easy to see why. In the lab across the hall, Lindsay Monroe was hard at work, peering through a microscope and pausing every once in a while to write down notes.

A mischievous idea flashed across Adam's brain.

"So, I've been thinking about maybe asking Lindsay out," he said, working hard to not react as Danny whipped around in dismay. "I was hoping you could give me some pointers?"

"You can't ask her out!" Danny blurted quickly.

"Why?" Adam feigned innocence.

"Because she's…she's… Well, she's not your type!"

"Really?" Normally, Danny's words might have stung, but the pure panic on his friend's face was just too good. He finally couldn't hold back the laugh that was welling up inside and it bubbled out, his lips twisting up into a massive grin.

Danny's distraught face flooded with relief. "Man, you suck!" he cried, smacking Adam over the head which just caused the tech to laugh harder.

"Hey, you were the one making goo-goo eyes through the walls," Adam teased through a bite of his tuna.

"I was n- Did you just use the phrase 'goo-goo eyes'?"

"What? Isn't it technical enough for you? Or can your manliness not take it?" he asked, relishing the change of roles for once. Of course, knowing Danny, that wouldn't last long.

"You sound like a teenage girl," Danny replied with an eye-roll, finally digging into his own lunch.

Adam just shrugged, still smiling, and took another bite of his sandwich, which really didn't taste _that_ bad. As they ate, they both watched the people passing back and forth in front of the wall of glass.

"Seriously, though, are you ever gonna ask her out?" Adam asked after a while.

"Yeah," Danny answered with longing in his voice. "As soon as I can figure out a way to do it that leaves no room for her to turn me down."

"Make it a dare. You know she can't resist those."

Danny graced him with an "are you serious?" look, making Adam laugh.

"How about you, Chuckles? Fancy makin' the moves on any of our fellow labrats? Some of this newest batch are real lookers, if ya know what I mean?" Danny drawled, gesturing not-so-discreetly to a group of the new recruits that were chatting animatedly with each other as they walked past the break room's clear wall.

Adam let his eyes follow them as he hid behind his sandwich. It was true. Some of the newest batch of Entry Level techs were…there was no word for it other than hot! It would be a lie to say he hadn't noticed, or indulged in some fantasies at first.

But those fantasies hadn't been long-lived. Danny didn't spend as much time in the lab with them as he did. It wasn't so much what he saw as what he heard that kept him an arm's length away from them. Flawless skin and great hair just didn't cut it when he had to deal with the snide comments and one-upping.

Imagine having to pay to listen to that on his time off. He didn't think so.

"Some of them aren't actually very nice," he muttered. Danny needed to stop bugging him about this before his friend got it into his mind to try and "help" him out.

"Thought you didn't like nice girls," Danny fired back with a wink.

"Har-har," Adam replied, rolling his eyes and now wishing he'd never started teasing Danny about Lindsay in the first place.

"Yo, guys," Doctor Hawkes suddenly interrupted their conversation, sticking his head around the break room doorway and gesturing to both of them. "You're never gonna believe what I just found on the packaging we took from the plant. You gotta see this!"

Adam sent a silent thank you to the Doc for saving him from where he could tell the conversation was going. And an afternoon of pouring over evidence with Hawkes and Danny also meant less time enduring the presence of the new lab techs, so that was a double thank you. Still, not all of them were awful. There was at least one that was somewhat different. Not the stunning beauty that the rest were, but she seemed nice enough, in a shy, quiet kind of way…

"Earth to Adam. You comin', dude?"

Adam jerked out of his thoughts to find Danny waiving a hand in front of his face while the Doc laughed quietly in the background. Blushing, he nodded and stuffed the last bite of his sandwich in his mouth before draining his coffee mug. As he jumped to his feet to follow his friends, his stomach gave a funny little flip.

_Traitor_, he thought with a scowl. Perhaps the tuna hadn't been his brightest idea after all…

**Author's Note:**

Sorry for the delay in posting, on this and all my stories lately. Real life has been particularly busy lately. I hope if you were reading this, you haven't lost interest. And I'd love to know what readers think of this strange meshing of worlds I'm creating here.

Finally, I must give special thanks to a few friends who helped me push through my real life induced writer's block and get this chapter out: Smuffly, Pix, and Tanya. You guys are the best! Thanks so much!


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